MTA Girls Poland Summary

Majdanek

- Alexandra Barak

Majdanek was the Death camp and concentration camp I did my tekes on. So before coming there today, I thought I had somewhat of an idea of what I was going to see and experience, but I was wrong. Starting at the top of the small hill, walking into Majdanek, all I could think about was that I’m walking into here but I know I will be coming out. We entered the gates of Majdanek and I just looked around. I just couldn’t believe that this was a place where so many Jews were murdered. It did not feel real. With Jeremy leading us through the camp, describing each process that the Nazis put them through, it was just horrifying to imagine what went on in these barracks.

We entered the bathhouse barrack. The first room was where they shaved the Jews. Next was the shower room — but not an ordinary one. It would be either boiling hot or freezing cold water. The Nazis believed that by having the Jews’ blood pumping faster it would kill them quicker in the gas chamber. That was the last room. Walking in, one could see the blue stains of gas and the scratches on the walls. All I thought about was how many holy Jewish Neshomas were murdered in such a terrible way, adults and little children screaming שמע ישראל for their very last time. It was just so heartbreaking and incomprehensible.

Next, we went to a barrack which was filled with just so so many shoes. All you see is shoes. We walked through the only field of barracks in Majdanek which remains intact. As we left the field, we linked arms and walked up the hill to the pit where tens of thousands of Jews had been murdered over 3 days — a punishment” ordered by Reinhard for the recent Jewish uprisings.

Afterwards we went into the crematorium. It was traumatising just thinking about how much burning was done there. Then we did our Tekes, which I think explains what was going on during the time of the Holocaust, how it was normalised and not hidden, and how people of Lublin were just ‘bystanders’.

I’ve tried to understand how this can all happen, but there is no answer to this kind of inhuman cruelty. I always think one life is one whole world, how can I imagine 6 million worlds being destroyed? Ponar - Meira Feinblum

My tekes was in the Ponar forest. I had researched it prior to going. Yet it was still an overwhelming experience, seeing the size of the pits as well as hearing Rav Yonny and Jeremy’s anecdotes. It’s chilling to walk there - an ex beloved holiday destination and camping spot,now the place of the betrayal of the Jews. As Jeremy said “For the Germans, 300 Jews killed was 300 enemies killed, but for the Lithuanians, 300 Jews killed was 300 pairs of boots, and 300 trousers.” Vilna Ghetto - Michal Cohen

Today, we embarked on a journey to Lithuania, a place I had grown up hearing about but had yet to have the opportunity to visit. It is here in Lithuania that both my mother’s Bobba and her father resided. As we entered the Vilna Ghetto, Jeremy told us a story that would accompany us throughout our journey.

The story was of Abba Kovna, a member of the Hashomer Hatzayir youth movement. When the Germans entered Vilna, the deportations of Jews began. A procedure was in place to systematically eliminate the Jewish population. Restrictions were imposed, including the roundup of Jewish leaders (Judenrat).

Abba Kovna witnessed a horrifying scene: a mother and baby being dragged by their hair. The soldier brutally took the child and smashed its head against the wall.

Amidst this darkness, people stood up and fought back. They were my age, members of the Abba Kovna group. They gathered in the square, determined to resist. They declared, “We will not be led like sheep to their slaughter.” It took a year to gather enough ammunition for their initial attack before fleeing for their lives. At the time, Ietzick Wittenberg was the face and leader of the youth resistance group.

The Germans confronted the Judenrat, demanding Letzick be handed over or they threatened the liquidation of the ghetto. Wittenberg understood and gave himself up, only to be tortured and killed by the Germans. Abba Kovner replaced Wittenberg. They fled through the sewage system, establishing a Jewish partisan unit deep in the Rajiks forest.

Abba Kovner gave over a clear message that he would rather die as a free fighter rather than march to his death. He survived and made Aliya. He wrote a note in the Kotel saying how he never stopped believing. How his belief did not collapse. He recalled how he stood by the ancient stones of the Wailing Wall and felt more disconnected than ever before. That was until a man approached him and asked him to be a tenth in a minyan. That was a turning point. That’s when he understood.

This leads me to my second understanding of the day. As a nation, the concept of responsibility for one another has been deeply etched into our DNA. The call to Rise has always been a core value within our faith. I believe that Judaism actively calls on us to take responsibility for one another.

“For every ninth needs a tenth, just as every one needs nine.”

I’m learning how two opposite emotions can coexist. Although today was full of remembering those murdered in Lithuania, it was also full of light and upliftment as we learned about the lives of the Vilna community before the war. Treblinka - Leah Sifris

Tremblinka. A place of true evil. A place that is filled with a thick silence. A silence which is marred by a sound of screaming, of pleading, of the barking of nazi orders. A silence where one can smell the smoke. Imagining the death factory of treblinka. The sound of trains, of shma yisroel, of a babies cry are raw and real in our minds. Treblinka was not a camp it was a machine. Thousand of people were brought into the reception area daily. They were stripped, dehumanized, separated, tortured and led to the gas chambers. We walked along were the train tracks were. Now a monument replicating the tracks. We walked in silence. A deep feeling that one cannot explain filled my heart. I yearn. I remember. I mourn and I walk. We reach were the reception once was. The place where the Kagoshima were loaded out to their final moments. The ground is paved with stones. A pathway leading to the very place 900 000 of our Jewish brothers and sisters were brutally murdered. Now in the place of the death chamber is a big monument. With faces and hands reaching out. I was standing on the very ground where it happened. We were standing on the ground which till today is still ash. The ass of the Jewish people. We are surrounded by rocks some which said names of towns and some didn’t. Each one of the 17 ppp rocks represent a town. Each rock, each town is a cemetery of its own. We walked through the forest of rocks. Seeing the destruction of communities. 15 minutes of walking alone. Introspection. Overwhelmed yet a the feeling of honoring the memories of our people. Jeremy told us about what they did to the bodies. What they did to our people. One cannot comprehend such cruelty. When hearing Jeremy’s story about his father, who is a survivor, and his parents and young siblings who were murdered at Treblinka the pain and trauma of the Jewish people and a pride of being a Jew filled my heart at the same time. Of building a family and Of connecting as a people as a unit. Before we left we left a stone where we wrote a good deed which we will take on on a pile of stones left by other people. We sand the song the holy hunchback and the words ‘the greatest thing in the whole wild works is to do someone else a favour’ resonated. Putting a stone to create a monument of good deeds. As survivor Halina Birenbaum said: ‘go to Treblinka, they are waiting there for you. They long to the voice of your life, to the sign of your existence, to the place of your feet, to human look of understanding and remembering, to caress of love over their ashes’. We went to Treblinka. We felt the horror. We felt the love. We remember. We understand. We will never forget. The Kever of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk - Tsofia Beider

Today is our last day in Poland and we had the זכות to visit the kever of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. Rebbe Elimelech was a prominent 18th-century Hasidic Rebbe, known for his book Noam Elimelech, which helped shape early Hasidut. It is considered to be one of the most well-known kivrei tzadikim in the world. Rebbe Elimelech is known to have promised that anyone who davens at his kever will not leave this world without doing teshuvah. The Belze Rebbe and Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Rimanov also emphasized the power of visiting his kever as a segulah for teshuvah.

We started by saying the special tefillah that is customarily recited there as a group, followed by several chapters of Tehillim. After that, we were each given time to spread out into the forest and do עבודת הנפש -spiritual introspection. We had the chance to calmly reflect on who we are and who we want to become. This kind of introspection is considered the first step toward any spiritual growth. We were given a set of questions, inspired by the Piaseczno Rebbe in his Tzav v’Zeruz, to think about and respond to in writing. This process is a form of עבודת ה known as היתבוננות and חשבון הנפש.

Once we finished answering the questions, we walked into a secluded part of the forest. There, we learned about the importance of praying in our own words. The אבות davened through personal meditation and spontaneous tefillah before the establishment of fixed prayers and sidurim.

Each of us then spread out alone and used the reflection questions as a springboard for היתבודדות which is a form of personal, spoken prayer inspired by Rebbe Nachman, where one speaks directly to Hashem in their own words. We ended the experience by coming back together and having a tish in the forest.

I can say on behalf of everyone that in was an incredible and uplifting experience. Auschwitz Birkenau - Shira Koral

Our feet squelching on the muddy stone, our faces down, eyes low as we walked arm in arm across the train tracks to enter the G-D forsaken place of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As we entered the huge premises, we all felt heavy and immense pain as we are reminded that behind these barbed wire fences more Jews were killed than any other time in history. As we open our book to learn about the place where many of our anscetors died Al Kiddush Hashem, the rain pours onto page that is a bold red surrounding the word “Auschwitz” almost symbolizing the amount of blood spilt in in that very time. Aushwitz sucked blood out of various Jewish communities with the railways leading to it, as opposed to ירושלים which pumps blood into Jewish communities across the Israeli Railways. We walk proudly with our Israeli flags clinging to our backs to represent that we have revived even though the Nazis tried to erase us. As we enter the Barracks which was originally made for horses, we learn that not only were 10/12 inmates made to sleep in one small bed, but there was not reality of privacy, hence reiterating the purpose of the Nazis to erase and eradicate the Jewish people by stealing our sense of identity. This is further shown when we are taking to where the Gas chambers (marked sauanas). What the Nazis did not know was that our identity did not lie in our hair, or our clothes or the fact we had no privacy with each other but rather our sense of identity was in our Neshomot, not in superficial realities like the Nazis thought. 1.5 million Jews sent to die in Aushwitz and we stand with our heads held high now, because we are here. Alive, well and proud. Children’s forest - Michal Wolpe

Today we visited the children’s forest. My tekes was in the children’s forest but nothing could prepare me for the horrors that I witnessed today. Standing by the pit where 800 innocent children were killed felt like it could not be real. The pictures of innocent children’s smiles on the gate pierced the soul. We received names of children that were killed in the shoa, the names were the same as ours, reminding us that this could have been us. We got notes from our parents and key rings of our family photo helping us appreciate everything we have in our lives. After seeing this we can really feel the responsibility and privilege we have to be the future generations and Please Gd bring more light into the world. Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin - Batsheva Lurie.

Last night we had the privilege/honour of spending the night in Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin.

This yeshiva was established in 1930 with the of hard work of Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shapiro. Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shapiro was a famous Rabbi who introduced the concept of Daf Yomi. This led to an increase in Torah learning worldwide. It also brought about Achdut Yisroel as Jews from all over the world now learn the same Torah everyday. Before ending the night off, we learnt a daf from Masechet Yona, which discusses the complexity of doing Teshuva. We learnt a beautiful idea that stuck with me: Teshuva out of love for Hashem, a love for a relationship that you don't want to ruin, is far greater than doing Teshuva out of fear of what others might think of you. Lastly, we danced and sang around the bima of the ancient Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin.

We sang the famous nigun of D'piTy 7N, written by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shapiro. Being accepted into this yeshiva was so rare, so special and such an honour, as one would need to know 200-400 pages of Gemara off by heart to be accepted into this Yeshiva. What a privilege to not only sleep in this Yeshiva, but to also learn Torah where so many great people did.